Great Rooms

YOUR HOME AS YOUR STORY

Why a story? I was a lit major in college, in large part due to Saturday trips to the “grownup section” of the library with my dad. All this was balanced with a keen hobby-like interest in home design, from my mother’s constant redecorating.

So, when I engaged with a novel, I always wanted to know “What does this room look like? What does it feel like? Even, how does it smell, how does the air taste? Great writers impart that directly with description, or in mood driven dialogues. Then when I morphed many years later into design, the story aspect of a dwelling stuck with me.

The big question: What does your home say about you, and do you feel it supports you? Is it really your story, or some idea you saw in a magazine or TV show, that may or may not be you. There are questions I like to answer just from being in a home. Basic questions about the life being lived in the home.

If I answer some of these questions just by being in an environment, or by knowing the inhabitants, without interviewing, the design work is of one sort. If I can’t answer these questions, I will ask lots of questions, and it is another type of work. Both are rewarding — interesting and completely engaging.

Who lives here?

And what do the individuals do?

What are their ages?

If it’s a couple…who is she? Who is he? Who are they together?

And then, what do they do together? Do they entertain, pursue hobbies, read, watch movies or TV, race out the door in the morning? Return, ready to relax?

If there are kids….what are their ages? Girls or boys? Avid students, sports team members? Engaged young kids or distant teens? Or grads, returning to the nest?

And why does it matter? One of the best possible things about my job is to figure out the very best of a home’s likely story, and to help the owners see and realize it in the environment in a beautiful, handsome and comfortable way. This means to find and create whatever helps them feel they are living, working, creating and playing in their own story, or even their own fantasy, and not someone else’s prescription, or fantasy, for a good life.

What story will your home tell?

Texture, furnishings, color, surfaces—all play a part in creating mood and function.